Speeches by Mahmood.

“I am very pleased that the hon. Member raises that issue, and I am happy to look at the detail of what he has seen in his constituency. Let me assure him that there is a lot of work happening with retailers, and I know that different platforms are being adopted. The pace of technological innovation in this area is very…”

“What the shadow Minister should have done first is apologise for being part of an Administration who opened the social care route, which was open to such horrifying levels of abuse. That route was closed by this Government, which was the right action to take. Since we have been in government, 1,000 sponsor licences hav…”

“These are the right reforms. We have set out our proposals for an earned settlement scheme, and they are being consulted on. That consultation closes in a matter of days, and the Government will consider all responses. If there are any changes that we wish to make, we will make them in the usual way.”

“Let me condemn in the strongest possible terms all the antisemitic incidents that the hon. Gentleman has highlighted in his question. This Government will not stand for any antisemitism in our country, and we will take every step we can across Government to wipe out this evil from our society. He will know that I am re…”

“I am delighted that town centre crime has fallen by 15% in my hon. Friend’s constituency. It has fallen in many towns across the land since this Government came to power—not just because we are introducing new technology, including live facial recognition, where we need to; not just because we are introducing more neig…”

“The testimony of the victims that the hon. Gentleman has heard from is absolutely horrifying, and the grooming gangs scandal was one of the darkest moments in this country’s history. Victims and survivors of these hideous crimes deserve justice, and we will make sure that they get it. Our inquiry is a full, statutory i…”

“I gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that I am always willing to listen to advice, wherever it may come from, but I point out that in 14 years under his party in government, we did not see any such action. It is very easy to say from the sidelines, “Just deport everybody.” If it was so easy to derogate from interna…”

“This Government pledged to restore order and control to our borders, and our work is taking effect. Since we took office, removals of illegal migrants are up 31%, to nearly 60,000, forced returns are up 45%, and deportations of foreign criminals are up by a third. In December we imposed visa sanctions on three countrie…”

“The reforms for settlement are precipitated by the issues in relation to the scale and pace of recent migration into the country. Between 2021 and 2024, net migration stood at 2.6 million people, which means that around one in every 30 people in this country today arrived in those four years. We have seen particular is…”

“I would not say it is deterrence. There is a particular issue where we have seen migration into the country on a very large scale—much more than was expected—and of a very different nature to what we have had before, both in terms of the skills range and the number of dependants. Something like 50% of the care work num…”

“Evidence has already been given to the Committee about what was said in front of me on 8 October—”

“No, I disagree. If you look at our paper on the new proposals for settlement, the intention is to restore the element of contribution at the heart of the system. I think that our country is full of very tolerant and generous people—we are very open—but I think there is a condition to that, which is about contribution. …”

“I think a lot of evidence has been given to the Committee about various email exchanges and conversations that took place. I do not believe that much will be added to that but, of course, if it can be, I will make sure it is.”

“I am sure that my officials are watching and will be able to respond. But evidence on this exact point has been given before to your Committee by the director general who was responsible for this.”

“Look, I can write back to the Committee. I don’t believe the evidence is going to go further than what you have already heard directly from—”

“As late as 15 October, it was still said to Home Office officials that all options were on the table.”

“That is not what was said to me.”

“It is my understanding that even on 15 October, in an email exchange, it was still believed that all options were on the table. I think my officials were trying to get information all the way through about what was going on. The possibility was raised on 8 October, and there is the email exchange about all options—”

“We obviously want to be able to ultimately break this business model. We are interested in all and any mechanisms that we have at our disposal to do that. It requires co-operation with international partners. We are in the middle of a negotiation at the moment, and I will not—”

“I would dispute that net migration is at very low levels. It is still really quite high. It has had a big drop from the very large increases that you saw under the previous Administration, but it is still comfortably over 200,000, which is still quite high on any measure. When I first came into Parliament, back in the …”